Norwegian wife and mother of four, living live as full as possible in the land down under. I love writing, so this is my outlet and communication channel. Follow and share if you'd like. All photos are my own unless stated otherwise.

Proud mamma

You know what is so hard about raising children? It’s that we’re raising them in a world that is becoming more cynical by the day, political correctness is at peak level and instead of teaching our kids that resilience is key, we have the ‘participation’ award. I try not to do too much ‘bragging’ about my children, but today I got all teary when I knew that out of all the kids we have – at least one of them will be the good we want to see in the world. We’ve done ourselves proud with this one. Hear me out.

Melodie had her first gym competition this morning. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to do it, but I talked her into it by explaining that ‘it’s not about competing’. She was happy and have been a little bit excited for a while. We got her dressed this morning, did her hair, all went down and sat there watching her perform (?) on the four apparatuses they had today. She did bars, beam, floor and vault. I thought she did quite well on floor, the other ones I had no idea if it was good or not. By the time it was time for their presentations, I had been watching her waiting for the next thing, while she was happily sitting there, smiling, talking with her friends, bouncing up and down and generally just being the awesome kid she is. Many of the other girls were bored and just sat there, while my Mel clapped along to the cheerleaders entertaining us while the scores were tallied up.

As they got ready to hand out the trophies, I was slightly worried. I had seen the other kids, and was pretty sure Melodie didn’t measure up to them, and although she had a cheery disposition this morning, you just never know with her emotion. Also, her BGL’s had been fluctuating heaps this morning, which often plays its part in her emotions. What if she was going to be sad that she didn’t place? I really can’t deal with that kind of heartbreak at the moment, so I braced myself, hoping I wouldn’t need it. They handed out their ribbon without us seeing them, then announced the first, second and third place. None of them were Melodie. I looked at her, she cheered for her friends, so far so good.

After they were done, I came up to her, and she showed me her ribbons, she had placed third on the floor, and she was super excited, with a fourth and two fifth places. I turn to Simon and said: it’s a third! That’s amazing! She was beaming.

She skipped out to the car carrying her ribbons, saying ‘I can’t wait to share this with my classmates on Monday!’ And as I put all the kids back in the car, comes her pure saying that broke my heart, but in a good way:

“You know, I am so happy. One of the girls got all the number one ribbons, she is amazing. And I am so happy the other girls got the second and third, because they are so nice and I just love it when people do well.’

I had to go behind the car and just smile to myself. Because she obviously didn’t care about her own winnings and there was not a trace of disappointment. She was just genuinely happy that the other girls had success and that was it. If we can manage to get the other girls to her level of compassion and care for others, then we have certainly added some good back into this increasingly cruel world.

And yes, I am bragging, and yes I am endlessly proud of her and yes, I will try not to make it a theme:)